Part 5
ANOTHER HOMICIDE
JAMES MCMILLAN WAS yesterday severely wounded by ISAAC BOLTON, at the slave depot of BOLTON & CO., with pistol shots, BOLTON shot four times at McMillan, wounding him twice, MCMILLAN used no weapon.
A SLAVE TRADER from Kentucky, James McMillan died in Forrest’s home. McMillan sometimes bought slaves for Forrest on a commission basis in Kentucky and, accompanied by a partner named Hill had come this time to Memphis with a few whom he quartered for safekeeping in Forrest’s slave jail. Forrest’s facility housed a business that at the time was excelled in the thriving Memphis marketplace only that of Bolton, Dickens & Co., which boasted affiliates in New Orleans, Vicksburg, Mobile and Lexington, Kentucky.
The incident no doubt damaged the Bolton firm, costing senior partner Isaac Bolton much credibility. The infuriated Bolton invited McMillan to his slave yard on the false pretense of wishing to buy a “fancy” houseboy for his wife, and when McMillan, doubtless suspicious, asked Forrest what he should do, Forrest advised him to take a likely slave to the Bolton offices. When McMillan arrived there shortly after 9 am, Bolton began cursing and told him to refund the price of the free Negro or be killed. According to testimony in the trial that ensued, Bolton drew a pistol and fired three shots at his unarmed guest, severely wounding him. The victim was ultimately taken to Forrest’s, where he died about 5 p.m.
This virtual assassination produced public revulsion toward the Bolton firm, whose volume of trade quickly fell behind Forrest’s and soon collapsed altogether. Bolton returned to Memphis and was indicted and jailed in an atmosphere so charged that a change in venue was granted. As Forrest waited to testify for the prosecution, another killing shook Memphis. A businessman named Everson was murdered on the street by John Able under circumstances which brought an immense crowd to the jail. Able, reputed to be a “notorious gambler”, claimed to have been drunk when he drew the pistol and shot Everson. Hundreds of Memphians, already disturbed by other gambler’s outrages and McMillan’s recent murder, demanded a hanging.
At the public meeting to determine the circumstances, a committee was formed of three to notify another gambler and murderer, Joe Able, John Able’s father to leave the county of Shelby by noon the next day and never to return; also ordering all gambler’s to leave Memphis within ten days. The committee also ordered the closing of all gaming houses in Memphis. The The Daily Appeal named “Bedford Forrest” as a member of the three man committee. Considering Forrest’s own gaming proclivities, it is interesting to speculate why he was one of those chosen to go see Joe Able. Furthermore it is interesting to wonder how he came to be named Vice President of the three man committee to extract the gambler’s out of Memphis. Forrest’s authorized biographers, say that almost as soon as the murder had been committed, Forrest was drawn to the scene. When he saw the mob’s intent to lynch Able, Forrest counseled with the mayor and other prominent citizens. The mayor, newly elected was R.D. Baugh, later a political ally of Forrest’s and possibly already a personal acquaintance. In a lynch mob atmosphere, a brand new mayor no doubt would call on all dependable help he could find, especially someone as fearless as Forrest.
The mass meeting named it’s officer’s and passed a resolution to name one man from each of the city’s six wards as a committee of vigilance. Forrest was named as Alderman of his ward. Also, at the time of this public meeting, the crowd cried out for Able to be brought forward for the lynching. He was dragged to the navy yard, however the crowd encountered his wife, mother and sister. A rope encircled Able’s neck, “when his mother rushed in and plead for her son’s life and succeeded. The prisoner was returned to jail, but the crowd once again that evening tried to take him away and was dissuaded only by several speeches- one of which may have been Forrest, although no surviving newspaper account names all the speakers who dispersed the lynching attempt.
Whatever else he did in the Able incident, Forrest doubtless made enough of a name for himself that the people of Memphis began to see him as more than just a slave trader. However questionable Forrest’s business dealings, his forthright behavior on the side of the law and order in both the Able affair and the Bolton outrage was admirable and must have seen particularly so in the Memphis of that era. On June 22, 1858, the “Local Matters” column in the Appeal reported that the voters of the Third Ward will hold a meeting tonight at Forrest’s yard, for the purpose of nominating candidates for Alderman.
Five days later, the Appeal printed the Third Ward vote results in the aldermanic election: Coleman 158, Kortrecht 168 Forrest 196, Brooks 47.
The Bolton affair helped to boost the business of Forrest in this section.
This section begins the process of the "upper crust" of the city of Memphis to take notice of Forrest and honor him with the civic duty of Alderman for his ward.
His civic duty and desire to see right out do wrong was finally acknowledged and admired by the people of the city of Memphis.